This invention relates to electrostatographic process equipment, and more particularly, cleaning apparatus for removing toner and other particles from the image-bearing surfaces of such equipment.
Electrostatographic process equipment, which produce or reproduce toned images on selected substrates by employing electrostatic charges and toner particles on an insulated photoconductive surface, typically operate through a sequence of currently well known steps. These steps include (1) charging of the insulated photoconductive surface with electrostatic charges, (2) forming an electrostatic image on such surface by selectively discharging areas on such surface that are the equivalent of the background of the image being formed, (3) developing the electrostatic image so formed with particles of toner, (4) transferring the toned image to a suitable substrate for fusing, and (5) cleaning residual toner and other particles on the photoconductive surface in preparation for similarly producing another image.
The quality of the images produced by such equipment depends significantly on the ability to clean the photoconductive surface before it is reused.
Several types of cleaning apparatus, including blade-type cleaners, have therefore been developed for cleaning the photoconductive and other image-bearing surfaces in such equipment. The long term effectiveness of any of such cleaning apparatus, however, depends significantly on the ability of the cleaning apparatus itself to move and hold (away from the surface being cleaned) the toner and other particles it removes from such surface. As electrostatographic process equipment become more and more compact, and more and more competitive in their quality aspect, there is a need for a cleaning apparatus that can move and hold particles away from the image-bearing surfaces of such equipment, without resorting to bulky, complicated and expensive particle-moving components. Examples of cleaning apparatus with such bulky, complicated and expensive components, in the form of powered conveyors, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,685,798 and 4,711,561.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning apparatus capable of long term effectiveness even in compact copiers and printers.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a simplified but effective cleaning apparatus capable of moving and holding toner and other particles away from an image-bearing surface, without resort to bulky, complicated and expensive particle-moving components.